Beirut explosion ‘Ask Me Anything’ hosted live by Bel Trew a year on from the disaster

A year after the disaster struck Lebanon’s capital and the whole country is crippled by a desperate financial crisis. Ask our expert on the ground Middle East correspondent Bel Trew about the current situation and what it is like 12 months on

(AP)

A year ago one of the single largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history blew up swathes of Lebanon’s capital Beirut killing more than 200 people and injuring thousands more.

Several hundred if not thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate, an explosive, that were poorly stored in Beirut port had ignited.The resulting blast and pressure wave that rampaged through the city temporarily displaced 300,000 people and has left whole areas of Beirut still destroyed.

Despite a paper trail showing that senior officials from the port chief to the president knew of the dangerous stockpile and did nothing about it, no one has been held to account.

The investigation into the disaster has pretty much ground to a halt amid bitter disputes between the investigative judge, the families of the victims and the ruling political elite over immunity.

Lebanon, meanwhile, is in the grips of one of the world’s worst financial crises in the last 150 years piling on future misery. As the currency has tumbled food prices have quintupled, meaning that now over the three-quarter of the country do not have food or access to money to buy food. Medicines are scarce, hospitals on the brink and there is only a few hours of power a day amid chronic fuel shortages.

The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Bel Trew is in Beirut where she has lived since last March including through the explosion which damaged her own home.

She will be answering your questions about a year on since the blast live on this page at 4pm BST on 3 August.

All you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question.

Don’t worry if you can’t see your question - they will be hidden until Bel joins the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm BST as Bel tackles as many questions as she can.